A 23-year-old man was shot and killed by security guards early Tuesday morning inside a St. Petersburg, Fla. store called the Obama Express Food Market.
St. Petersburg police said Jhai-quel Rai-Tez Black refused to leave the convenience store and began waving a gun around. Security guards patrolling the area at the time entered the establishment and fatally shot Black after he refused to drop the weapon, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Police taking down tape at the Obama Express Food Market. Security guards shot, killed armed man here overnight. pic.twitter.com/KuxMpvPYBG
— Zack Sampson (@ZackSampson) February 17, 2015
According to a 2009 article from the Tampa Bay Times, Obama Express’ owner, Mike Mahmoud, changed the store’s name from Food Max just days after then-Sen. Barack Obama was elected president.
Mahmoud had been looking to change the name of the store, which had opened just months before Obama’s election.
“I feel so bad that the previous administration created so much hate abroad,” Mahmoud, a Palestinian immigrant, told the Tampa Bay Times in that article. “They violated the principles of the United States. When they tap your phone and you’re trying to talk to your fiancee or your wife or your love.”
“We were targeted. I don’t want to talk about it,” Mahmoud said at the time.
St. Petersburg police said they do not expect to file charges against the security guards involved in Tuesday’s shooting.